History & Culture

The invention of the telephone changed the world. That’s no exaggeration. Phones are such ubiquitous features of our lives now that it can be difficult to imagine life without them, or to understand just how astonishing this invention truly was in the 19th century.

What is AI? A dominant view describes it as the quest "to solve intelligence," a solution supposedly to be found in the secret logic of the mind or in the deep physiology of the brain, such as in its complex neural networks. The Eye of the Master argues, to the contrary, that the inner code of AI is shaped not by the imitation of biological intelligence, but the intelligence of labour and social relations, as it is found in Babbage's "calculating engines" of the industrial age as well as in the recent algorithms for image recognition and surveillance.

"In Viral Voices, Carmine Gallo delivers a powerful roadmap for today's communicators."—Matt Abrahams, Lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and host of the Think Fast Talk Smart podcast "An accessible roadmap for anyone needing to get their message across successfully... This is...

In the 1940s, mathematicians set out to design computers that could act as ideal rational agents in the face of uncertainty. The Irrational Decision tells the story of how they settled on a peculiar mathematical definition of rationality in which every decision is a statistical question of risk. Benjamin Recht traces how this quantitative standard came to define our understanding of rationality, looking at the history of optimization, game theory, statistical testing, and machine learning.

If you read (or listen to) nothing else on leading digital transformation, listen to this book. We've chosen a new selection of current and classic Harvard Business Review articles that will help you set ambitious milestones for your transformation, anticipate and avoid common mistakes, and...

You wake up and reach for your phone. Before your day even begins, your focus is already gone. In a world of endless notifications, social media, and constant digital noise, The Art of the Digital Detox offers a practical, realistic guide to reclaiming your attention without quitting technology altogether. This book explains why screens are so addictive, how multitasking destroys focus, and how to redesign your habits, environment, and boundaries to regain mental clarity.

Below the waves, the ocean remains a largely undiscovered realm, with only 25% of its features mapped in detail. What we know about its depths, we've learned with the help of deep-sea robots. World-renowned robotics expert James Bellingham introduces listeners to this compelling world of contemporary undersea exploration and the vital role autonomous robots play in corporate and governmental aquaculture management, climate data, energy source locations, shipwreck explorations, and much more.

The human brain is remarkably pliable, capable of reshaping itself while still producing firm, enduring thoughts. Across the stages of life, our neuroplasticity gradually declines, yet the mind continues to adapt, compensate, and evolve. Technology, however, does not age as we do. It accelerates relentlessly—its pace now far exceeding the slow cadence of human biological evolution, which has largely plateaued some 100,000 years ago. This widening gap raises an essential question: what happens when our tools evolve faster than the minds that wield them?

How the Internet lost its way—and how to fix it. Reclaiming the Internet is an indictment of how Big Tech cloaks ruthless commercial exploitation in the language of free speech. Olivier Sylvain, a leading legal scholar and former senior advisor at the Federal Trade Commission, exposes the...

Modern cities are evolving into complex, data-driven ecosystems where digital intelligence and physical infrastructure increasingly operate as one interconnected organism. City of Algorithms presents a thoughtful exploration of how real-time data, smart systems, and algorithmic decision-making are reshaping urban life, sustainability, and human experience. Using a Seattle-inspired lens, this book examines the concept of urban metabolism — the continuous flow of energy, resources, information, and human activity that sustains a city's functioning.